2000 house owners provide tenant info

BHUBANESWAR: Police have received information about tenants from over 2,000 house owners in the city since the practice was made mandatory from April 8. Police have set June 8 as deadline for all house owners or landlords to furnish information about their tenants, failing which they will face legal action.

"June 8 is the deadline for the first phase after which we will inspect the houses. We would initiate action against house owners violating the order," said commissioner of police R P Sharma. "So far, the compliance report is satisfactory as we have received over 2,000 applications, filled up by house owners," said Sharma.

Police have asked the house owners to collect applications from police stations or website concerned. "The house owners will furnish information about themselves and their tenants (names, occupation, addresses, identity proofs and photographs) within 10 days of giving their houses on rent," said Sharma. Violation of the order might invite six months in jail and Rs 1,000 fine," he added.

Police said the move is aimed at keeping a strict vigil on anti-social elements. "While cracking different cases, we found many criminals stayed on rents for brief period and vanished after committing crimes. House owners claimed they had no knowledge about the tenants," said Sharma.

In view of the involvement of some tenants in different offences, Sharma in September 2013 asked police to start the process of tenant verification from Salia Sahi, the biggest slum in the city.

Though over 70,000 people stay in Salia Sahi, bulk of them are outsiders. Only around 10,000 tenants have registered their names and addresses with local police. The process was discontinued after some weeks.

On August 19, 2013, an M.Pharma student Manmohan Pradhan student was killed by some of his co-tenants after he protested their unruly activities in a house at Laxmisagar.

In Bhubaneswar, most of the houses have turned into boarders' paradise because of existence of several educational institutes, government and private offices, headquarters of banks and commercial establishments.

Overcrowded hostels became a headache for police in the wake of the arrest of some hostel boarders in connection with the sensational murder of an elderly woman and brutal attack on her husband in Acharya Vihar on September 13, 2012.

Neither police nor civic body has any information as to how many hostels exist in the state capital. "Houses in residential areas have been converted into hostels for commercial purpose. Instead of paying tax towards different heads for domestic purpose, the landlords should pay commercial tax for heavy consumption of various utility services," said Pradyumna Hota, a senior citizen.

Bhubaneswar: The Water Resources department has asked Bhubaneswar and Cuttack development authorities (BDA, CDA) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD) department to identify unauthorised constructions and demolish them